Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Stand by your man - or not in the case of the real Tory loons on theRight of the Party

Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph raises his eyes to the heavens and despairs and seeks a new saviour. But he is disingenuous. The problem is not mainly Cameron's weakness (as Charles agrees - he's probably the best available of a very bad lot). No - the problem is with Dave's friends in the Conservative Party and their more dim-witted soul mates in UKIP.

The "debate" - such as it is, which isn't much - over Europe is phoney, ill-judged and cynically timed. Voters agree with the premise that the UK's membership of the EU is hardly one of the key issues of the day. And yet 20 years on from John Major here come the pretentious, obsessive, dangerous, self-appointed defenders of our "National sovereignty" to make life hell for another weak Prime Minister.

The Tory/LibDem coalition was a dubious idea. But given the perceived failures of Gordon Brown and the weariness of Labour the outcome of those five days in May in 2010 was in retrospect inevitable. The real Conservative patriot, instead of creating phoney political earthquakes over Europe, would be 100% behind Cameron in his far more important goals of healing the economy, reforming public services and (YES) managing our relationship within (not "with") the EU. The first of these goals and the third are interrelated. Britain's economy can only prosper if we are active, engaged and genuine with our European partners. Britain standing alone from Europe is a preposterous notion - and that the very future of our Government is threatened by those peddling this snake oil is shameful.